September 2, 2010 – 10:41 pm
Disclaimer: This information is compiled to aid researchers in the selection of avenues of research and is not intended to be used by the patient for self medication. If you are tempted to try anything herein, discuss it with your doctor as it pertains to your individual situation.
When we discuss “therapeutics” we are actually speaking of three unique areas-
1) Preventives protect neurons from further damage.
2) Functionals maximize the abilities to cope with the existing damage.
3) Restoratives encourage repair and regrowth.
For our purposes we will focus primarily upon botanicals and nutritional supplements for several reasons-
1) They hold great promise.
2) Many of them lack the incentive of profit and are often neglected.
3) They are numerous.
4) They are (relatively) safe.
As mentioned, “preventatives” seek to block further damage and stabilize. They are neuroprotective – but against what? We seek to answer that question by identifying the destructive processes themselves and searching for ways of thwarting them. We believe that those processes can be grouped as follows:
1) Oxidation
2) Excitotoicity
3) Mitochondrial Failure
4) Inflammation and Microglia
5) Stress and the HPA
6) Autoimmunity
7) Alpha-Synuclein
8) Neuro-melanin
Functionals reduce or eliminate symptoms or otherwise increase the ability to deal with the disease.
Restoratives offer the promise of healing by means of neurogenesis, the production of neurotrophic factors, stimulation of formation of new connections, and things yet unknown.
The items listed here offer hope in one or more of these areas. They must also show at least no obvious dangers, but be aware that we are not capable of nor qualified to take an authoritative position on that. Hidden dangers are always possible.
August 31, 2010 – 8:31 pm
Parkinson’s Disease poses a formidable challenge to Science. It won’t “play nice” and sit quietly in the chair assigned to it by Modern Medicine. Like a youngster with a belly full of junk food, it not only won’t stay in its seat, it wanders around testing the seats of others.
PD simply will not accept a role that limits it to the Central Nervous System. It wants to sit with the Immune System and dip the pigtails of the cute Endocrine System into the ink well. PD will not “do right.”
The problem is not with the disease, however, but with the somewhat arbitrary divisions drawn around the scientific turf. If we are going to understand PD then we must look at the whole.
August 12, 2010 – 11:00 pm
Systems Involved in PD
There is a widespread misconception that PD is a neurological disorder. It is, in fact, true but only in the sense that a cancer that finds its way to the brain from the intestines is a neurological disorder. The reality is that PD is a disease affecting and being affected by multiple systems and the CNS is just one. This failure to recognize the reality of PD has a negative impact on our individual care as well as research as a whole.
If we step back and take a look, we find the following at a minimum:
Immune System: Numerous researchers over the last decade have found a major role for inflammation and the activation of the microglial cells within the brain.
Endocrine System: The medical community is beginning to acknowledge what the patient has long known, namely that stress plays a major role. What is only faintly glimpsed is the depth of its role.
Gastroenteric System: Constipation and inflammation-induced leakage of the protective barriers introduce a host of toxins into the equation.
Central Nervous System: Even this traditional “seat of the matter” is but a part of the picture.
“Secondary” Systems: Various sub-sections of the above.
Systems Involved in PD
Immune System
Endocrine System
Gastroenteric System
Central Nervous System
“Secondary” Systems
Elements of Progression of PD
Predisposing Factors
Initiating Triggers
Ongoing Processes
Oxidation
Excitotoicity
Mitochondrial Failure
Inflammation and Microglia
Stress and the HPA
Autoimmunity
Interactive Systems and Neuroactive Messengers
Neurotransmitters, Hormones, and Cytokines
Time Periods Related to PD
Preconception
Prenatal
Prepuberty
Puberty
Young Adult
Mid-Life
Senior
Environmental Factors and PD
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
Pathogens
Ultrafine Particulates
Toxins
Epigenetics
Internal Factors and PD
Alpha-Synuclein
Blood Brain Barrier
Circadian Rhythms
Constipation
Electrolytes and Ion Channels
Genetics
Metabolic Factors and Nutrition
Treatment, Repair, and Cure
Therapeutics
Neurogenesis
Symptoms
Miscellany
Historical View of PD
Homeostasis
Related Disorders
Rhythmic Disruption
By parkins1
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Posted in 2-Introduction, Alpha-synuclein, Autoimmunity, Blood brain barrier, Circadian rhythms, Constipation, Cytokines, Electrolytes and ion channels, Endocrine system, Environmental factors, Epigenetics, Excitotoxicity, Fetal period, Gastroenteric system, Genetics, HPA Axis, Historical factors, Homeostasis, Hormones, Immune system, Inflammation, Initiating triggers, Interactions, Leaky gut, Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Metabolic factors, Microglia, Midlife, Mitochondria, Nervous system (CNS), Neuroactive chemistry, Neurogenesis, Neurotransmitters, Nutritional factors, Ongoing processes, Oxidation, Pathogens, Pre-puberty, Preconception period, Predisposing causes, Puberty, Related disorders, Rhythmic disruption, Senior, Steroid hormones, Stress response, Symptoms, Therapeutic possibilities, Ultra-fine particulates, Uncategorized, Wheat gluten, Young adult
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First, a bit of cold, hard truth – despite 200 years of trying, we know darned little about Parkinson’s Disease (PD). And despite a steady flow of optimistic press releases about miracles that are almost always five years away, the situation isn’t changing much. Modern medicine knows neither cause, course, nor cure for PD.
But modern medicine is not the same thing as modern science and science, in the form of accumulated research, knows a great deal about PD – maybe just enough. A mountain of data has accumulated over the last fifty years and most of it has been filed away awaiting another researcher. It certainly has not found its way to the office of the local neurologist as any person with Parkinson’s (PWP) who is paying attention can tell you.
And PWP are paying attention and even figuring out things on their own. The Net has allowed them to communicate with one another and given them access to that mountain of data. They are taking advantage of that to sift through the dusty attic of science and they are learning things that have been forgotten or ignored. Things that challenge the way that things are done and how money is spent. Things that point up the gaping holes in the official view of PD as a mix of genes and environment that just needs the right pill to be cured.
Some of those things include_
1. One can give a rat PD by giving him influenza.
2. One can give a rat PD by exposing him as a fetus to bacterial infection.
3. An adult human can develop Parkinson’s – like symptoms from exposure to certain bacterial toxins.
4. These all create an ongoing immune response by the microglia in the brain.
5. This response, once established, is persistent and has many triggers.
6. Pollutants, toxins, and chronic stress are just a few of those triggers.
7. The ongoing immune response itself triggers a parallel stress response from the endocrine system.
8. The immune response utilizes chemical cytokines. The stress response on the part of the endocrine system utilizes chemical hormones. Both are neuroactive and affect mental function and account for many of the non-motor aspects of PD.
9. Chronic exposure to either of these chemicals can be destructive to the nervous system.
10. One area where this destruction is particularly evident is the substantia nigra. This seems to be the source of the motor symptoms that go with PD.
11. Finally, a slowed GI system can result from the endocrine and immune responses. The general inflammatory state increases the permeability of the protective barriers and result in “leaky gut” which can not only add to the toxins in the system but can also result in autoimmune problems.
12. The same inflammation can weaken the blood brain barrier as well and allow toxins to cross into the brain itself.
These points, all of which are supported by research, define a process that begins with the immune system and then draws in the endocrine and GI systems and ultimately afflicting the CNS. This is just the beginning and simply serves to illustrate that there is much to be added to the picture. That is our goal, in a sense – to put as many pieces of the puzzle on the table as possible in hopes that the solution will emerge.
By parkins1
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Posted in 2-Introduction, Alpha-synuclein, Autoimmunity, Blood brain barrier, Circadian rhythms, Constipation, Cytokines, Electrolytes and ion channels, Endocrine system, Environmental factors, Epigenetics, Excitotoxicity, Fetal period, Gastroenteric system, Genetics, HPA Axis, Historical factors, Homeostasis, Hormones, Immune system, Inflammation, Initiating triggers, Interactions, Leaky gut, Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Metabolic factors, Microglia, Midlife, Mitochondria, Nervous system (CNS), Neuroactive chemistry, Neurogenesis, Neurotransmitters, Nutritional factors, Ongoing processes, Oxidation, Pathogens, Pre-puberty, Preconception period, Predisposing causes, Puberty, Related disorders, Rhythmic disruption, Senior, Steroid hormones, Stress response, Symptoms, Therapeutic possibilities, Ultra-fine particulates, Uncategorized, Wheat gluten, Young adult
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Seeing no need to “reinvent the wheel”, we have adopted the time-tested organizational structure of the venerable book. Beginning with a Preface for the discussion of the most basic issues regarding site structure and philosophy, we then move to an Introduction to Parkinson’s Disease and related subjects. From there we delve into deeper and more speculative material in the Contents. Finally, there is the fertile catch-all of the Appendix.
August 1, 2010 – 10:34 am
We make no bones about it – we have a view of Parkinson’s Disease that has evolved as we have immersed ourselves in the data and that view is shamelessly promoted. How could it be otherwise? On the other hand, the picture is dynamic and continuously growing and shifting as more is learned. We do not feign impartiality nor academic detachment, and, yet, everything is open to discussion. Show us where we are wrong.
August 1, 2010 – 10:28 am
Parkinson’s Disease has long been thought of as a “simple” neurological disorder resulting from a genetic flaw encountering an environmental misfortune normally afflicting the old. Even today it is far too common for the patient to be told that he is too young to have PD. If nothing else is accomplished here, allow us to at least put this bit of ignorance to rest.
Parkinson’s Disease is a complex collection of at least two similar but distinct syndromes with one striking the aged (Senior Onset) and the other the young (Young Onset). The latter, being by far the more complex, enfolds SOPD and so our discussion is in terms of YOPD. But, as we shall see, even this is an over-simplification.
The current state of knowledge of Parkinson’s Disease is a jumbled mess spilling across several scientific disciplines. This Site is an attempt to bring some order to the chaotic collection of data that has accumulated in the archives over the last fifty years. As one “connects the dots” a picture does, indeed, emerge. It is of Parkinson’s Disease as a multi-factoral entity arising from a set of conditions drawn from a larger set of possibilities. These reach a level that triggers a more or less individualized set of degenerative processes that eventually lead to what we know as PD.
A useful tool to help comprehend this is the simple menu of a cafeteria-style restaurant. Each item has a price and each customer has a unique sum of money in his pocket. Some items have a cost of a dollar, some two. Some patrons have ten dollars in their pocket, some twenty. When the cost of the items on their tray exceeds the funds in their pocket the result is Parkinson’s Disease.
This view of PD allows for the confusing observations of a disorder different in each individual and yet so similar. This is important because, if there is no one cause, we may be wasting precious time and resources in the search for one cure. Fortunately, if there are multiple “causes” converging to produce the disorder, it may be possible to disrupt the individual processes and halt or roll back the disease.